Bad Ideas Dept: Peter Hook Is Re-Recording Joy Division Songs

Peter Hook is bringing his band to the U.S. next month to perform Joy Division’s Unknown Pleasures in full, which may be one of the worst ideas in music since the Doors decided to reform with Ian Astbury on vocals. But Hook is unrepentant in his mining of the past to make a few $$$, and is now planning on re-recording a few Joy Division tracks for an EP.

The bass player will recruit former Happy Mondays singer Rowetta to work on the songs, and he claims the EP was her idea. “She wants us to record an EP of the four [Joy Division songs] that she sings, which are “Insight,” “New Dawn Fades,” “Atmosphere” and a track called “Pictures” that I finished up, which is an old Joy Division track,” he said.

Naturally, Hook also commented on the criticism that has been aimed at him over this project: “I mean, the thing is, Internet criticism is like a snowball going downhill, isn’t it? It’s amazing how easy things get away from you, and that’s proved with the Mani thing, with Freebass and Twitter and how hungry for news everybody is. It’s amazing how these reactions start and become as big as they do.”

If you can bear to look, there's a live version of Hook's new interpretation of "Transmission" at the top of this post, which is so slapdash that the band has to start over again after the intro goes wrong, and features a boozed up crowd shouting along to the lyrics. Ugh.